


Visceral

by BlackIce_K1lls



Category: Inanimate Insanity (Web Series)
Genre: Abilities AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Basically the Kagerou Project AU but worse and more complicated, Cannibalism, Cobs isn't terrible, Gen, Homicide, Human-ish AU, Kinda, Mutilation, OCs that aren't too important - Freeform, Physical Abuse, Slow Burn, Song references, Suicidal Thoughts, Unsafe Stuff, Verbal Abuse, he's trying
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2019-08-23 01:14:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 25
Words: 19,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16609049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackIce_K1lls/pseuds/BlackIce_K1lls
Summary: MePhone 4 has always been... unhinged at times. So when he decides to do something unspeakable to his family, he's ready for that visceral feeling and that stupid snake to do their work.





	1. Time of Memory

**Author's Note:**

> This is a somewhat graphic work depicting abuse and violence. Please proceed with caution.

2010

-

"Soooo, you have any snacks?"

Cobs looked at MePhone4 with a tinge of confusion.

"You don't need food," he said slowly.

"Oh..." MePhone4 looked down at the floor and then at the nearby table. "What's that plastic sheet thing over there?"

"Oh! It's a screen protector. Y'know, for your eyes... to protect them!"

"Ah." 4 looked at the monitor behind him. "And that thing?"

"A task list."

"Does everyone have a task list?"

Cobs was taken aback by the question. "Uh, no? I made you with a purpose of doing those tasks."

4 gasped. "Cool!"

"Yeah... Cool..."

-

4 sat down in the dark with the tv on, playing some reality show.

"Go get it, go get it, go ge-" 4 was cut off when Cobs stepped in front of the tv. 4 blinked. "What?"

Cobs gulped. "Ahm, 4, what are you watching?"

"A reality tv show."

Cobs shifted and slouched slightly. "Did you do your tasks?" he asked in a soft voice.

"Ah..." 4 stayed silent for a moment before getting up and declaring, "I forgot! I'll do them right now!"

Before he ran off, Cobs patted his head. 4 turned and looked up at him. In the same soft voice, Cobs said, "Don't push yourself too hard."

4 nodded and ran off.

-

Cobs held a stopwatch while 4 held a determined face.

"Ready..." Cobs's thumb hovered over the button. 4 prepped his mind. "Tree!" Cobs yelled and the stopwatch commenced.

Immediately, 4's mind yelled and a tree appeared. It wasn't really a normal tree but a tree nonetheless. It was just on the glitchy side. 4 frowned.

Cobs stopped the watch and wrote something down. Then he patted 4's head, ruining his hair. Cobs still spoke in that soft voice. "Don't worry. It's fine. It's still a tree."

4 still frowned. Cobs sighed. "You can keep on testing if you want but I hope by tomorrow you can make a spaceship."

Walking away and to the door, Cobs looked back at 4 who looked at the tree. The tree remained glitchy.

Cobs walked away and 4 whispered.

"Why is it red?"

-

4 happily walked to Cobs's office, carrying a small sailboat. He couldn't try a spaceship; what is a spaceship anyway? Turning, he opened the door to find Cobs a bit busy.

Phones were ringing, assistants running, paperwork flying all over the place. It was a mess. Cobs was hastily handling calls and 4 blinked. His grip loosening on the sailboat.

Cobs took note of 4 standing in the doorway. "Ah, 4, what have you got there?"

The grip got looser.

"Woah, did you make that?"

The grip got looser.

"4?"

The grip was too loose and he dropped the sailboat. It broke.

"Ah, 4, be careful." Cobs bent down to pick up the pieces.

4 gulped. "I see you're busy. I'll... I'll go now." He turned and walked away.

"4, wa-" Cobs tried to go after him but was stopped by the assistants needing help.

-

4 walked down the hall to find an open door. Cobs was working on something.

The thing malfunctioned. Cobs sighed, took off his glasses, and rubbed the bridge of his nose, running a hand through his yellow, curly hair.

"C'mon, I know you can do it," he whispered.

4 walked away.

-

4 opened the closet door, revealing a lot of items stacked on shelves or just placed there. He rolled up his sleeves, based blue and thin striped white, and walked forth.

As he walked, he looks at the items on the shelves. On the lower ones, an off color yellow man's black visor flicked on to look at the passerby, curious about this newcomer. 4 passed that odd thing he saw Cobs work on. He payed no mind to the two.

What he did pay attention to was someone sitting in the back wall, motionless. 4 pushed his right eye bangs out of the way to get a better look, but they fell back to where they were.

4 slowly approached the figure, grabbing an arm from the odd thing he passed as a defense. He blinked as the being started being and his eyes flicked on and started saying something.

The figure had crewcut black and yellow hair and a yellow sweater, black pants, grey shoes, and a white button-up but the man was so jacked up that it made 4 uneasy. The thing he said were nonsensical. Crazy even.

4's breathing hitched. The man started saying to don't do it Cobs over and over and started to convulse until...

Until...

4 pulled the arm he had grabbed over the man's throat.

He didn't know what prompted him to do that but he sure as hell wasn't stopping. 4 continued to push the arm down on the throat, using his foot as extra weight. The man flailed his arms around, attempting to get 4 off him.

The man was pulled to the floor and went on to struggle as 4 attempted to put him out of his misery. The man screamed and struggled and then stopped moving as the force of the arm on his neck snapped it and the man's body had no head.

Mecintosh stopped himself and sat still on the shelf. He shouldn't had turned on and looked. He shut up and shut off.

4, on the other hand, was full of adrenaline. Full of it. Dropping the arm and staggering back into a sitting position, he assessed the situation.

Scampering to get up, 4 ran out of the room and closed the door behind him.

He ran off to his room and pulled the covers over him. 4 held a hand over his mouth and twitched.

"I- I-" 4 could only muster that out and switched to thinking instead. _I killed a man._

4 rolled over and stared at nothing.

The ticks of the clock rang loud.

He felt his legs kicking.

Other than that, it was silent.

 _And_ _I_ _liked it._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had this idea for a bit but the newest episode gave me motivation to do it. Basically, 4 is on the path to be a double, which in this world is someone who is the part of that person that they hide in their mind. That's all I can tell you.
> 
> I also wanted to write some more violent stuff for some reason. 
> 
> I haven't made a cover for it on Wattpad so it'll be on there when I make one.


	2. Being

For what he felt right now, MePhone felt really shitty.

Throwing his head forward, the memories flooded back as to his brain as he tried to remember what happened.

_I can't stay here._

He heard sighs of relief and was engulfed into a hug. It felt nice but wrong. MePhone did realize that the people hugging him were his assistants and just felt something.

Something weird.

_He'll know what_ _I_ _did._

He brushed it off and asked what had happened while he was out. MePad explained that his memory gems had vanished, Fan was eliminated, and MePhone was having a software error.

'Oh...' he said, getting up.

'Now we don't have to call Master Adam!'

He blinked. He was quiet for a bit.

'Yeah,' he replied. 'Yeah, we don't.'

_But_ _I_ _can't just leave him._


	3. Emotion

4 gulped.

Both MePad and he stood at headquarters, with packed bags and a sense of unease and worry.

MePad sighed. "Welp, let's go."

Both of them picked up their bags and headed into the building. Once inside, the place wasn't as busy as when they left. No more papers flying, unanswered calls, or anything of the sort.

Walking past the people, the two made their way to the back of the room where a door was, in which staff and products were only allowed. Opening the door, they entered and shut it behind them.

"Here we are." MePad turned to 4. "I'll find Cobs, you find the rooms."

4 nodded and MePad took off. Once he was gone, 4 looked around. Just a normal room with tables and posters. The break room.

He gulped. As an attempt to calm himself, he tapped his fingers on his thigh. Ta tap, ta tap, ta tap.

"Oi!" Hearing a voice, 4 stopped tapping and gripped the bags he had. A small girl came up to him, with long black hair highlighted with grey and wore an oversized dress as well.

4 shook his head to push his bangs out of the way but they fell back again. The girl looked at him with excitement.

"Oh, you're here! You're really here!" she squealed. Without being able to process anything, the girl took his wrist and dragged him to the first door on the left, dropping his bags and revealing two more people. One green, and one **yellow**.

4's breathing hitched and he started tapping again. Ta tap, ta tap, ta tap. They both said something to him but he could only focus on the yellow one.

The girl pointed to herself. "I'm 2G." She pointed to green. "That's 3G." She pointed to yellow. "And that's 3GS!"

4 looked at 3GS, mainly his neck. There was an odd bruise there failing to be covered by bandages. 4 started tapping faster. Tatap, tatap, tatap. 

They started saying something again, but it fell on deaf ears. 4 could only focus on that neck.

The neck.

The neck.

The neck the neck the neck the neck the neck the neck the neck the neck.

The neck.

The tapping got faster. TatapTatapTatap.

Soon his body felt like some snake tore into it and replaced it with an explosion of bright green. 4 hung his head down.

His skin was orangey, wore jeans, and a black spaghetti top. His hair was a neon green, flourishing into a ponytail that resembled an explosion. He looked like a girl.

3G looked over at him. "Oh... You have a snake."

"That I do."

"Don't know which one it is but it seems pretty cool."

"Yeah..."

4 shook his head and returned back to his original form. He blinked. _I have a snake._

"Um, 4?" 2G called his name. He looked up to find the room half covered in ice, starting at his feet. The rest of the phones were climbing onto the furniture to avoid the ice.

Shaking his head again, he was back to normal. "S-sorry."

"No sweat?" 3G said. She pointed at the bottom bunk next to 3GS. "That's yours."

"Thanks."

-

He woke at 2 in the morning. He was already fully awake so no use in going back to sleep.

Getting up, he turned to the upper bunk where 3GS slept. He was fast asleep and was not waking up. He looked so... peaceful.

So unharmed.

So vulnerable.

So pitiful.

4 didn't realize it but his hands were hovering right over 3GS's neck, shaking and twitching. 4 retracted them.

4, instead, opted to go to MePad's room. Only a few doors down. Walking down the hall, he creaked the door open just a little and found MePad pacing back and forth about something with the screens.

4 looked around at what he could see. The desk was full of crumpled papers, and the floor was just literally pens everywhere.

MePad stopped mid-pace and turned to look at 4 peeking in. 4 ran back to the room ASAP.


	4. Hello There

5 stared at the red sky. The Heat Haze always had a red sky.

He wondered how long he'll stay here. 3 years? 5? Forever? Forever. Probably forever.

Up until a snake came and ate him.

Then he woke up back in headquarters. The white lights blinded him. 5 tried to sit up but was gently pushed down by a hand.

"No no no. You might want to lay down for a while. It'll disorient you more if you sit up to quickly." The voice was replaced by footsteps. That voice. It was soft and comforting. Like home. Home?

5's mouth felt new. Like he was learning to talk again. "C-cobs?" he managed to sputter out.

He could hear him gasp in excitement. The footsteps got closer and Cobs's face was in view. He was smiling, in a good way. Not a sinister or unsettling way. A good way.

"Yay! You can get now."

Slowly, 5 pushed himself off the table and faced Cobs. Scratching his head, he asked, "What happened?"

Cobs spun around. "Well, after 4 and Mini moved back in, I started to work on your bodies to bring you back and it worked! For you at least. I'm still working on the others."

5 swung his legs over the edge of the table. "Even 4S?" he asked, eyes ringed and filled with hope.

"Hm, no, unfortunately." Cobs's eyes faced down. "4 has his body and one of the assistants accidentally threw the blueprints away for him and every phone before him. I'm sorry."

A basket of rolled up blueprints fell over very loudly and 4 came to light, looking sheepish and swapping to another snake. Bunny, the embarrassment one. Hot pink, white, and black.

There was a tense silence with 4 looking around before he swapped to another form. Rayn, the sad one that caused rain whenever the host cried. 4 started crying but he shook his head over and over to prevent the rain from getting to 5.

He must've overheard the news about 4S. Cobs was shortly over to 4, patting his head and speaking softly. 4 calmed down but it didn't really help with the news.

4 shook his head and made his way to 5, staring at him. 4's arms twitched but he eventually pulled 5 into a hug. 5, confused at the situation, soon hugged back.

It felt comforting.

_It's his fault._


	5. Sunglasses

5 was having a nice day. A nice quiet day.

When he woke up, he felt refreshed. It wasn't 3 in the morning and the smell of breakfast was in the air. 5 got up.

He had his sunglasses on, all pointy and black, and his triangle shaped ahoge stood slightly tilted on his head. His gray shirt wasn't wrinkled,  with the pink and white striped collar, in order. 5 fluffed his white hair and headed out the his room, one with 3 unoccupied beds.

He strolled down the hall with smile on his face, greatly anticipating breakfast. Then he stepped on some glass. And screamed. Then 4 was there and started screaming.

Then MePad got there and started screaming. Then everyone in headquarters started screaming. Then Cobs came in and tried to deescalate the situation, lifting up 5 by the collar and taking him the infirmary.

Practically everyone that wasn't 5 or Cobs were crowded at the door of the infirmary. The glass shards were thrown into a small bowl and Cobs began disinfecting the wounds.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, 4 was standing at the broken cups. He had dropped them setting up the tables and 5 had walked in right before 4 had grabbed a broom.

The was a moment of silence before 5 started screaming. Then he started screaming. Then everyone started screaming. Then Cobs swooped 5 away to the infirmary.

Everyone had gone to see if 5 was okay but 4 stayed behind. He had dropped the glass so it was only fair if he cleaned up. Grabbing the broom he had dropped in the rush, 4 grabbed the dustpan.

While he cleaned, he felt guilty, which was reasonable to an extent. But he also felt a presence. Or rather 10 presences. All squirming and mewling. Something about the emotions.

Then 4 felt something bite his hand and he was at another form again. He felt anxious and thoughts raced through his mind though he was a bit drowsy.

The form was average, with long seaweedy hair, a girl's school uniform, and a lab coat draped over them.

The thinking didn't stop. The anxiety didn't stop. He was bent down on the floor, hands and legs paralyzed because he couldn't bring himself to run to infirmary. 4 shook his head, and he was back to his old form.

The presences swarmed around the host while he sat there, just sitting. He felt frozen. One of the presences tried their hand at the form but it was interrupted by MePad. MePad had calmed down.

MePad gulped. "Sir, it is relieving to know that you are trying to clean up, but maybe try to move your arms."

4 sat there.

"Sir?"

"Ah, sorry. Just thinking." 4 threw some of the glass in the dustpan to the trash. "I'll get to the rest."

The smoke alarm went off. 3G must've left the stove on. How ignorant.

MePad rushed over to the stove and turned it off. Turning to 4, he said, "I guess I'm handling breakfast then?"

The glass by the end was gone and 5's foot was now bandaged. Everyone had calmed down and returned to breakfast.

4 himself had just gone for cereal. Everyone just ate their food and small conversations about things. Cobs just ate some toast.

About around 8 thirty AM, Cobs went to the other places to do work which left more than 5 people, all younger than 18, in a room together. It was also around that time that 4 had apologized to 5 about the glass. 5 was fine.

The presences didn't do anything except wait.

Wait until the next emotional state.

 


	6. Hate

4 is a quiet one when he's sad.

More so when he's scared.

4 had a dream. He was sitting on one and of a very long bench. He got up to walk to the other end and found himself.

Though, this one was older. That one wore such different clothes yet looked exactly like him. Like a twisted version of himself.

That version spoke about 4's wanting need to be strong. How that needed was begging to be relieved. How badly it wanted to manifest.

'But,' he said. 'That is for another time.'

4 turned around.

'And don't forget,' the version spoke, 'burn them after your done.'

The bench beside him warped as 4 ran and ran. The floor becoming a void of nothingness. Then 4 woke up.

He shook his head continuously to stop the presences for taking action. The pillow had a compression because of countless nights of shaking his head. 4 gulped. Not again.

4 heard the covers on the top bunk shift and 3GS coming down to leave the room. After a solid minute, 4 followed after him.

3GS went to Cobs's room. Of course. That's where they all go if they're having night problems.

The door was slightly ajar. 4 looked in on the room, the light from the hallway, casting a shadow. Just not his.

3GS and Cobs were talking about something. Something about necks. Cobs had said that it was easy to bring him back because only had to reattach the neck and fix the sound processors. But then 3GS asked something to personal.

"Yeah, but why did my head come off?"

It was a bit much for 4, eavesdropping on them like that. His hands resounded to tapping on his legs, a habit he thought he had broken. Tatap, tatap, tatap.

That topic was always sensitive to him. Up to this point, no one had known about the closet incident. Except for maybe Mecintosh. Though, he had never said anything about it.

4 inched closer to the door, and it creaked open, revealing himself. He felt a presence hovering over his shoulder, breathing down his neck. It felt cold and raspy.

Cobs blinked. The sudden appearance of 4 interrupted the conversation. He didn't want it to be too awkward so he talked.

"Hey bud, you got problems too?"

4 swallowed. There was a moment of tense awkwardness. Cobs started to talk again before 4 had cut him off. "I did it."

4 didn't know why he did that, saying those words. Speaking the truth bluntly was one his strong suits. Murder wasn't a thing he admitted openly before all things considered.

"Did what?" 3GS asked. The air felt heavy with his voice joining in.

"I..." 4 swept his bangs behind his ear but they fell back to where they were before. "I..." The air was heavier more than ever now that 3GS was in on the conversation.

Cobs was feeling the emotion in 4's voice and stood up slightly to give him leeway to calm down. "Now don't force yourself. Take your time."

The tapping got quicker. TatapTatapTatap. The air felt like 100 pound weights on his body and his breathing got faster.

"Killed you." The words fell out of 4's mouth. The air felt light again and another presence drew closer, but more comforting this time.

3GS's voice shuddered with horror. "What?"

"I-"

"I know what you said. You... killed me and you didn't say anything?" 3GS stood up and got closer to 4.

4 only nodded.

"3GS, I-" Cobs tried to bring the situation down.

"Anything? Nothing can let your mouth to tell him about this?"

"You need to-"

"Why would you do that?"

4 was silent and he was shaking his head constantly to keep the presences away.

"I hate you." Then 3GS walked back to their room.

"3GS..." Cobs sighed. 3GS had always had a bad temper. Cobs walked up to 4 and grabbed his sons shoulders, but 4 pushed them off. The look on 4's was pure shock.

4 turned around and ran off to the stairs. Cobs followed suit. They ended up on the roof.

4 was leaning against on of the fence. The presences were suffocating, grabbing at his body and constricting themselves against it. They smirked and weighted as 4 shook his head so many times that he was dizzy.

The door to the roof opened and blonde looked around frantically before two rich brown eyes settled on 4. Cobs had found him.

He sat down next to 4 calmly. He didn't want to startle him. 4 was silent, violently shaking his head. When he stopped, the tapping sound started again.

The two sat for a while. Just sitting. Shifting every so often. At the very least, it had been 5 minutes until a new face joined.

Or rather a stolen face.

Snakes typically share their host's face. When they don't have one, they are just the type of snake. The Snake of Clearing Eyes was no exception.

Cobs must've knocked his glasses off, the only thing standing between him and the snake. He shook his head and the snake was in on the conversation.

The Snake of Clearing Eyes was a King Cobra. A sleazy one at that. They existed well before Cobs and had chosen him to be hosted well before Cobs died the first time.

They wore simple clothing. A green hoodie, blue jeans and sneakers. The hood was usually left down unless they were mad. But most of the time they weren't. The eyes were a bright blue and their skin was a pale white.

4 hated this thing. This monster. This good for nothing ability of all snakes. They took all the joy from Cobs: calling him useless for years on end. Before he made Mecintosh that is.

But, the presences ceased. The Snake of Clearing Eyes stopped all abilities within a room or 3 meter radius. They were horrible, but it made the suffocation go away.

"Clearing." The name felt like venom on 4's mouth.

"Eh, how y'all doing kid?" Clearing always spoke with a southern accent despite being from an area in India.

4 was quiet.

"Not talkin'? I don't blame ya." Clearing swung their arm around 4. "That headless Medusa made it pretty clear that he didn't like ya."

No response. The snake kept talking. "Heh, the snakes kicking in?"

4 didn't respond but he nodded.

"Must be nice to breathe a bit. All 10 of them are a mess if you don't keep your emotions in check."

"Are you always like this?" 4 finally answered. "Being a sleaze and draining all joy from everything."

Clearing shrugged. "I guess, but I'm not doin' it right now."

4 stood up. "I'm going back to bed."

Clearing got up too, grabbing Cobs's glasses and putting them in the pocket of their hoodie. "Well then, night."

The effect of Clearing vanished as 4 walked away and the presences were suffocating again. It was much less this time.

By the time he got to his bed, he was too tired to shake his head and he drifted off to sleep.

 


	7. Ostracize

4 was quiet.

It wasn't hard to imagine a world where he was looked over. It's happened before.

It mostly happened when 4 wanted to show Cobs something back when he was less than a year old. Cobs was often overworked to the brim and couldn't really make time for 4 besides doing checks and training. That was okay. 4 was used to it.

4 was looking through old stuff and had found a box labeled 'Should fix by June 24'. 4 hesitated for a moment. Should he open it? It was in the back of one of the closets so it was most likely it was forgotten. 4 grabbed the box.

Sitting down and setting box on his lap, 4 opened it. The contents were broken pieces, some glued together, others jankily taped together. The only thing that was mostly intact was a white cloth.

"Eh, why would this need to be finished by June? It's already September." 4 grabbed the cloth. It was clung to a thin piece of plastic and that's when he realized what this was.

It was a sailboat.

He remembered making this. And dropping it. And the sound it made. It was nice.

_"So you couldn't get the tree right. So what? This is training so you can get better!"_

_"Could I try something else?"_

_"Ah, well, maybe, you could..."_

_"I could what?"_

_"Maybe try a spaceship? Life is harder to get down so maybe something non-living would work better."_

4 tried a spaceship before but it was so draining he just made a water spaceship. As in a sailboat. If he had kept going, Cobs would've scolded him for overexerting himself.

_"Uh..." The pieces were swept into a box. "It was close."_

_"M'sorry."_

_"No, no. It's okay._ _I've_ _been working so much_ _I_ _should probably made some time to relax."_

_"..."_

_"Tell you what, I'll see if_ _I_ _can be free this weekend and then we can see one of those_ _sailboats_ _you made!_ _How's_ _that sound?"_

_"Nice... Can_ _I_ _go now?"_

_"...Sure."_

"Huh. I guess he forgot."

"Forgot what?" 3GS had appeared at the door.

4 closed the box and set it down. "Nothing important. Know what's for dinner?"

"Dunno. Why are you here anyway?"

4 stood up. "Just wanted to look through old stuff."

There was a dark blotch on the floor. Not one that was in your face but if you looked long enough you could find it. 4 gulped, "Do you remember what happened here?"

3GS sighed, "Not really. I must've been glitching out. But now I know what you did."

"I don't know what came over me." 4 turned to 3GS. "Are you okay with that?"

"Tch, whatever," 3GS scoffed. "It's not like it was intentional, maybe."

4 throat tightened. "Sure. Yeah."

_But I liked it._


	8. Fashionable

It was around a year after 5 came back when 5S and 5C joined.

They were a bit shocked when they were pulled out of the Haze but 5C was more shocked about everyone else.

Back before they were released, 5C had completely redesigned their wardrobe. 5S never really complained about it but he did admit that the clothes he and 5C had were a bit old fashioned. And thus 5C gave them new clothes.

Especially to her older siblings. (Excluding Mecintosh because 5C had said he was too old fashioned for her to fix)

The clothes mainly consisted of hotter clothing like long sleeves and pants. A rather fancy-ish look.

MePad had his be a reverse color scheme of his normal clothes. Bright magenta cardigan and a black shirt. He was also given a hair style change. Just swept it to the side. "This seems a bit excessive."

5 was just given a gray shirt with the sleeves cut off, white pants, and his old gray shoes. "Don't I get something interesting?"

2G got a light gray sundress. 3G got a black pleated skirt, dark green hoodie, and gray boots. 3GS got a v-neck sweater with a white undershirt, black slacks and gray shoes. "Cool."

4 got a blue dress shirt(sleeves not rolled up) tucked into black dress pants along with black dress shoes. His hair wasn't messed with but he did grow it out. It was a bit messy and reached his chin. "This is a bit much... and I'd really like my shirt back."

5C gave herself a nice pink to purple down gradient sheath dress with matching boots and black tights. 5C gave 5S a normal button up with short sleeves and khakis though 5S had popped the collar of his shirt to show the tank top underneath.

5C clapped. "Perfecto! My work here is done!"

4 tugged at his sleeves and looked at 5S. The style 5C given him had some getting used to along with everyone else but 5S bothered him. It really bothered him. But 4 brushed it off and continued on with his day.

_"The Haze is such a bother."_

_4 looked over at 5. Now that they were stuck, they might as well explain themselves. 5 said he must've misunderstood Cobs since he heard Mecintosh say "Not again"._

_Since Bow had also died too, none of them could leave. Why did it always have to be two people entering?_

_4 stood up and felt a tugging sensation at his leg. Suddenly, he was pulled down to the other side of his Haze. Or rather someone else's._

_This one was a never ending room filled with floating glowing blue screens. They all seemed to face toward 4 and the person that had grabbed him._

_Straight black hair highlighted with red, a red and black striped collar shirt with rolled up sleeves and a popped collar, black slacks and shoes, and sunglasses. 4S._

_"How did- we- but I- and you-"_  
_4 stuttered._

_"Listen, I don't have much time, but you're coming back."_

_"But-" 4 felt ten snakes wrap around his legs. "But you! And Siri and me and... and... and..."_

_4S slapped him. "I can only bring one of you back and I'm pretty sure the world needs you more than they need me."_

_The snakes started to constrict around his body. Suffocating but 4 had other things on his mind."But-"_

_"No buts!" 4S let go of 4 and started walking to the screens._

_4 fell. The snakes were all over and made it harder to move. "4S!"_

_"I'm sorry but it's for the best."_

_The snakes then blinded him and he woke up._

_"Ow! What happened?"_

"Oh, now I know why."

"Know why about what?" 5S snook up to 4.

4 stopped for a moment and then pulled down the collar on 5S's shirt.

"Uh..."

"There! That's better!"

"...Okay?" 5S walked away and questioned what just happened.


	9. Want

MePad was very adamant when it came to helping.

He was also very curious.

"Cobs."

"Hm?" Cobs looked up from the washing machine.

"How exactly did you make us?" MePad asked. "You never really explained how you brought back everyone either."

Cobs hefted the basket on the machine. "Uh, well. It's like coding a regular laptop only with personality. The hardware is the easy stuff. Uh, it's the A.I. that's the hardest."

"I can make you guys without you being able think and you'd be compliant but that would feel wrong to me. Like I would've robbed you of something before you were even born. So I do the hardware first, maybe basing that on one of you guys, and then I work on the A.I." Cobs and MePad started folding clothes in the living room.

"Is that how you brought back 5 and the others?" MePad kept folding clothes.

"No, I had their blueprints still in tact so I reused those to make them."

MePad gulped. There was a pit in his stomach he couldn't really describe. He kept folding. "Then what about 4S?"

Cobs stopped. "Um..."

"I saw he was in production for a bit before my drive was downloaded. You must've had blueprints of him at that time."

Cobs sighed. The shirt in his hands were in cease fold and he pushed his glasses up. "My assistant threw his and all the other phones before him away before I had plans to bring them back."

MePad stopped folding. "But 2G, and 3G, and-"

"Their bodies were still intact when they came back. I just had to fix them a bit. 4S is a special case I suppose."

There was silence for a while they went back to folding clothes. MePad thought about what Cobs had said.

They finished in about an hour and just sat there. Just sat down. MePad fiddled with his fingers and Cobs pulled on his two ahoges.

The older phones had gone out to do... teenager things. Mecintosh was upstairs probably fixing his visor. The younger phones were making a card tower.

Eventually, they did put the clothes away and the two went back to doing their own things.

MePad lay down on his bed and pulled out his tablet from under his pillow.  MePad began to think about that conversation.

_4S is a special case I suppose._

_4S is a special case._

_4S_

**_4_ ** _S_

**_4_ **

Then it hit him. 4 has 4S's body. It's just in a different form. As soon as this realization came into being, MePad bolted to Cobs and busted into his office.

"Cobs!" MePad made his way to the desk. "I have an idea."

Cobs was slightly shocked at this, and readjusted his glasses and sat up. "What's your idea?"

MePad slammed his tablet onto the desk, which showed a picture of 4. "If 4S is just a slightly updated model of 4's body, we could, in theory, replicate his body to make 4S, tweaking a few things such as appearance and personality. All the hardware would be slightly new but could still be plausible!"

"MePad, you're a genius!" Cobs stood up in excitement. "But, we would need 4's permission to replicate his body since all the blueprints for him are gone as well."

MePad looked down, then straightened up, grabbed his tablet, and saluted. "I do my best to convince him!"

Meanwhile, 4 was at the kitchen, glaring at the garbage disposal. He was considering putting his hand in it but hesitated every time he tried. He swapped to the scared snake for a moment when MePad bursted into the room.

Switching back to normal, he found that MePad was panting. MePad must've been running all over the place. The place was huge after all.

"Sir!" 4 was a bit surprised when MePad called him that. MePad walked closer to 4. "Sir, I have an idea but we need your permission."

"Uh, sure? What is it?" 4 asked.

"Cobs and... I are planning on bringing 4S back... by... replicating your body," MePad said, still panting.

"You want to bring 4S back?" 4 planted his hands on the counter. "You want to- you want to- for me? I dunno."

"Of course for you! And for everyone else. It seems unfair that one person's mistake stops us from having one person miss out on having a good family." MePad breath came back. "But mostly for you."

4 glanced at MePad then frowned. "I don't think that-"

"Please sir! I want to do this for you!"

4 was quiet. "I-" He gulped. Was he really gonna bring him back? It could be true. The presences were near but not suffocating; they were  more relaxed, as if they had calmed at this information.

4 sighed and hung his head. Then he looked at MePad. "Yeah, I'll let you."

MePad's face lit up. "Oh thank you sir! We won't let you down!"

4 smiled. "I sure hope so!"

MePad left the kitchen. Oddly enough, after that, 4's voice seemed higher than usual.


	10. Connect

4 sat on the table. MePad and Cobs were setting up to examine him. 4 looked around and spotted a button besides him. He picked it up.

"What's this?" he asked. The button had some sort of character on it, with black marking on his face and bleached blonde spikey hair.

MePad glanced over at 4. "Oh," he said. "That's mine." MePad picked up some measuring tape and measured 4's arm.

"Why do you have this?" 4 asked, straightening his arm.

"Mm, well, I guess it was a phase I had. Remember? I was always watching something when we weren't working."

"Oh, yeah." 4 straightened out his other arm and MePad measured that. "Anna- something. You really liked that stuff. Why'd you stop?"

MePad took down the measurements On the clipboard. He sighed, "I suppose I grew out of it. It just didn't interest me anymore. Legs."

4 stuck out his leg. There was loud crash coming from the other side of the room. Sounds like Cobs was rummaging through a few things.

MePad continued to measure both legs and walked out of the room after that. Cobs came back with blue paper and a white pencil.

MePad came back with a few new measurements. Cobs cupped 4's face with both of his hands. Ruffling 4's hair and widening his eyes and the such. His hands were warm.

After about 30 seconds of this, Cobs's ahoges stood straight up and Cobs grabbed the white pencil and started drawing on the blue paper.

4 rubbed his face. "What was that?" he asked, looking at MePad.

MePad shrugged. "Maybe a memory refresher? Both you and 4S do look very similar with similar technology."

"Done!" Cobs held the blue paper high. "With the face at least. MePad, you have the measurements?"

MePad nodded and handed the clipboard to him. "I got some of the measurements from 5C for things like the waist."

"Perfect!" Cobs tuened to 4. "4, we might need an x-ray for checking for how we put skeleton together. You okay with that?"

"Yeah, yeah."

Cobs clapped. "Yay! Now about the measurements..."

The conversation faded from 4's focus. He slipped the button into his pocket and pulled out his phone as well. He turned it on. No notifications.

He shrugged it off and put his phone down.

-

"It's a bit boring with no one else around." He sighed.

There wasn't really anyone to talk to. He couldn't talk to 5; he left. He was too scared to talk to anyone else here; he barely knew them. He couldn't talk to 4; he was the one to leave because of him.

It was boring for 4S in the Heat Haze.

The screens around him hummed with a low buzz, with only them really let him do anything. Not much, but something. They let him just play around with them. Stacking, making pictures, remembering.

4S mostly did that last one.

Remembering was a thing he did more than he did in his short, short life. When he first saw the Terminator movies, when he first picked up a gun, when he first drove a car, when he 'born', when he met 4, when he entered the Haze.

It was nice. Somber but nice.

Then one screen flickered on. For no reason. Strange. Most of the screens turned on because of him. 4S tilted his head and looked the screen. From what he could see, it was a ceiling of some sorts.

Bright, blinding fluorescent lights shined and the sound of a bell rung.

The screen showed a hand grabbing and picking it up. A face came into view, frowned and set the screen down to face the ceiling again.

4S knew that face, that sound, that ceiling, that everything. That was 4. In a room. But where?

To 4S, that didn't really matter. He smiled. He was just happy to see 4 again.

 


	11. Think

Handling 3 projects at once was a hassle. But that doesn't stop Steve Cobs from doing it!

Sleep? What's that? Replace that with coffee and you're good to go! It doesn't matter that you've been doing this for weeks on end; you need to this!

That was his mentality for next few weeks. Work, coffee, take care of your children, work, coffee, take care of your children, work, coffee, take care of your children, all up until he inevitably crashed hard on his desk.

To him, it was all worth it. To sacrifice himself for his kids. He never had that himself. Maize had died and was left in the Haze, leaving him with a snake that called him useless.

Cobs just found it as relief whenever his kids were happy at the expense of him. Their smiles made him smile. And that was fine. Not to Mecintosh.

To Mecintosh, he viewed this mindset as too self-destructive, too unhealthy. Mecintosh found it as if the snake came back and ruined everything again.

Back then, he could never tell the difference from his dad and the snake. Most of the time, when Cobs would suddenly change from gentle to a sleaze, Mecintosh just thought it was Cobs being Cobs.

Once he found out that it was something completely different(I.e., a new visor), it made things a lot easier. Mecintosh did notice a few things. Triggers and neutralizers for certain things. 

For that snake to show up, Cobs would need his glasses off his face. To prevent any change to 4's appearance, he would have to shake his head. Sometimes a lot. The visor helped.

So when he saw the snake slinking around, Mecintosh was worried. This thing stood there for a while, looking at him, staring at him. It looked around and then back at him.

"Where are the keys?" it asked. The snake was swaying a bit, side to side, seemingly tired.

Mecintosh looked around too then pointed to himself. "Me?"

"Yea..." The snake yawned. There was an odd thing with snakes and hosts. Whenever the snake took over the host's body, it always looked like the host. Just small differences. For the snake, a noticeable difference was the fangs. Long and sharp. "Where are the keys?"

Mecintosh took a step back and the snake took a step forward. He gulped, "Why do you need to know?"

"'Cuz, the kid crashed pretty hard working on 3 separate projects." The snake leaned against the wall.

"Kid?"

"The kid. The corn man. Ya dad." The snake tapped at its head. "He fell asleep and I'm tryin' to open his bedroom door 'cuz it's locked!"

"Oh, okay." Mecintosh grabbed his keys. "I've got a spare."

-

MePad was loyal. Maybe a bit too loyal. But not foolish. Never foolish.

He knew the habits of everyone. Ironically, a habit of his he can't break from working on the show. He knew what people did but never why.

MePad never knew why.

He never knew why 5C would flip around the bedsheets. He never knew why 5 pulled on his ahoge. He never knew why 4 shook his head. He never could grasp it.

But MePad didn't question it. From the moment he was 'born', he didn't question anything. Waking up in an unfamiliar sailboat with a project that was set to release in June now asleep in the bed next to his did raise a few.

Later when he asked about it to 4, 4 said 'I didn't want you to know something but that's for another time.' That prompted MePad to ask more but all he got was silence.

"4?"

"Hm?" 4 looked over his shoulder. MePad stood at the bow of the ship. The wind wasn't all that strong today so the sailboat moved slowly. Though, their hair flowed slowly with it. "What?"

"Why do like sailboats?" MePad looked out at the sea and sky. They were two unending voids of blue, to never really stop somewhere. "Or rather, why did you ever choose a sailboat to leave."

"Mm." 4 leaned back. "Sailboats lead to seas. Seas are nice. And the sky too. Out here, nothing can judge you. Maybe the animals, but they don't really talk. No one will ever judge. Only then, you can yell into it and no one will here your secrets!" 4 stood up and yelled, and then quickly sat down. "It's cathartic."

"Hm, that's a nice asse-"

"Of course," 4 cut MePad off, "that'd just be pulling outta my ass. I like sailboats, seas, and skies because they're blue, like me."

MePad blinked. "That's it?" he asked, wildly bewildered beyond all his belief.

'That's it. That's why." 4 stood up and turned to MePad. 4's orange eyes seemingly blank mixed with a smiled he bared gave an uncomfortable vibe. "So don't ask anymore questions."

Then 4 walked off into the sailboat.


	12. Mystery

6 and 6+ were finished earlier than Cobs had expected. He also didn't expect how such a blank slate 6 is and how overanalyzing 6+ is.

Quite literally the moment he woke up, 6+ asked a question about spiders. Not why is he here. Not why he's wearing a coat. Spiders. He asked about spiders. 6, on the other hand, grabbed a leftover wrench and hit himself in the face.

Cobs never really did see how'd they'd act normally. Granted, a few days after they were 'born', they were killed. One from a ludicrous amount of height and the other from bending to much.

That bending part must've also transfered over because 6+ bent his arm completely backwards and he said he's fine. For 6+, after he put the wrench down and rubbing his face, his hand spurted out goddamn electricity.

This caused headquarters to lose power for a while, rousing complaints from said rooms. While Cobs frantically tried to bring the power back on, he realized that 6+ had wandered off.

It's not that it would be dangerous to walk around headquarters. It's mainly because 6+ legitimately only lasted a month and hadn't memorized the layout of the headquarters. That leads to getting lost and starting to wander.

"Now that can't be good." Clearing looked at the semi-empty room. Cobs shoved his hand at them.

"Not now." Cobs focused on 6. "You stay here. I'll go find 6+."

"And try to dunk your hands in water!" And with that, Cobs set out of the room.

Cobs didn't know who built headquarters. For one thing, the layout was confusing on everyone. The parts like the kitchen and bedrooms were installed later.

Another thing was that no one knew the **entire** place like the back of their hand. Only bits and pieces. Mostly parts where they worked or lived in.

He looked everywhere and even the places that he didn't really recognize. There were a lot of them. Even 7's room, who was still as still as he could be. Cobs made a mental note finish him too.

Mid-run, Cobs stopped at one of the bedrooms. He had heard talking from it and the door was slightly open. Quietly, he slid the door further open and looked at one of the beds.

"So like those characters who got wack if they get too emotional? That's what you got?"

"Mhm!"

"And there's like 10 of them?"

"Mhm! What about you?"

"I can do this!" Then 6+ grabbed his arm and bent it the other way.

Cobs breathed a collective sigh of relief. 6+ just ended up asking questions to 4. What kind before Cobs got to the room, he didn't know.

He walked over to the two. He put one hand on his knee and the other one 6+'s head. 6+ pulled his arm back to before. "There you are." Cobs smiled. "I almost thought you'd gone and- and... and..."

Cobs could feel 4's stare burning into his skull. There was rhythmic tapping sound. When 4 had gone and took MePad... that broke Cobs. Losing another one. Losing another one for no reason. To him at least.

He shook his head. "Gone and gotten hurt," he finished. He pulled his hand off 6+.

"Mm, don't worry!" 6+ grinned. "I just heard some hissing noises from here and I got curious."

The light from the window was about the only thing lighting the room until the ceiling light blasted the brightest white they could deliver.

6 walked by with a tool box in hand. He put his glasses in his shirt and greeted the three people. "Hey," he said, "I fixed the power. Apparently blasting it with more electricity made it work."

"Ah, thank you!" Cobs turned around and walked to 6. 6+ followed suit.

They walked out of the room and the door shut behind them, leaving 4 to his own devices.

4 was smiling then he frowned slightly and his eyelids went down a bit. He knew that 6+ was new and he shouldn't hold it against him, but...

_"How come you get a bunch when some get one?"_

_"Is snake blood like our blood?"_

_"Are your eyes normally like that?"_

_"Why would they be in the stomach?"_

_"So why are they all so girly?"_

6+ got personal.


	13. Effort

4 frowned. He was in one of the unoccupied rooms to test out a few things.

He sat at a desk and was a bit grumpy. Slowly, he thought. His blue streak in his black hair faded to a green and then quickly turned back to normal.

There was a bonsai on the desk now. Red leaves. 4 grumbled. He took his forearm and swept the tree off the desk, falling into a pile of failed attempts. It crashed and 4 was disgruntled.

Then he was ball of fire, seething with heat and burning the chair and desk, if only a little. He made a hissing sound like fire on hair and he gripped the desk. He shook his head.

'Calm down.' he thought. 'You can do it. Just don't get angry with yourself. You made a hedge maze before with green leaves; you can do it again.'

4 sighed. His battery was low. 15%. He grabbed a charger and jammed it in the back of his neck. He looked at the time. 8:37 pm. Gosh, has he really been doing this all day? 4 sat back in his chair.

He gazed at the pile of failures besides the desk. All of them terrible. Leaves aren't blue or pink or bright lilac purple! His nails dug into palm and... then he found a knife in it. Almost like 5's.

"Eh?" 4 looked at his hand. Just a regular kitchen knife. Aluminum blade and black plastic handle. The light hit the blade and it was bright white with a shimmering sheen.

4 twirled it around in his hand, over the knuckles and fingers and back again. He didn't get cut, almost as if twirling knives around was out of habit. He stopped and gripped the knife by the handle.

4 set the knife down on the desk and tried to make something else. His hair streak was blue, then green, then back to blue. Now there was a hammer in his hands. Not the kind for nails, but the kind for meat to flatten it.

4 looked down at the pile and with his hand, he took the hammer and smashed at the pile. Loud cracks of clay shattering and wood splintering was all he heard for the next minute or so. There may have been a bang and a scream and a crash from a distance but he didn't mind.

Then it was over. But 4 didn't want it to be over. He stared at the pile. The pile was now just like a crime scene with leaves, dirt, wood, and clay for a body and blood that barely looked like anything than it was before. It was messy and he knew that someone would be mad if he didn't clean up.

4 checked his battery. 39%. Close enough. He pulled out the charger from his neck. He checked the time. 8:40 pm. Has it really been that long?

Dusting off his pants, he stood up and headed to one of the closets to get a few janitorial items. 4 got back and cleaned and cleaned. While he did, he got that song Soap had made stuck in his head. He never heard it in person but hearing back on it was... an experience.

4 put the items back, shut both the closet door and room door, and went back to his room.


	14. If

The alarm clock blared and 4 groaned.

He didn't really want to get up but today was that day. That day when he lost his care for life. That day when he died. That day when all he did was try fail. That day when he lost... When he lost...

He hated it but loved it was well. Seeing the fear in 5's face once 4 pointed out that they were never leaving the Haze. The same fear when he left too. Granted, 5 was more focused on the fact that 4 was being dragged into the ground.

4 pulled the pillow over his face. He could still hear the the alarm. He was that green lady again then he shook his head. Pulling the pillow off his face, he looked at the alarm on his phone and turned the alarm off. He checked his battery. 47%. Could be worse.

Throwing his legs off the side of the bed, he sat up, still holding the pillow in his arm. 4 looked at his phone with blank, tired eyes. He looked at the date. December 7th. Woo.

4 put the pillow back on the bed and went to the dresser. He placed his phone there and changed his into his normal clothes. He didn't really worry about his siblings. The other three had gotten up earlier than him and left.

"Oh, I seem to just... just... not like today huh?" He closed the dresser and picked his phone up. It was still a 4S. Red background and all. 4 sat down and leaned against the dresser. "I just feel really out of it, y'know?"

'Mhm.'

He banged his head once against the dresser. "Why does the world subject to me to such unfortunate luck?" He tapped his fingers on his thigh. "Or even you."

'I don't know.'

4 clasped the phone and sighed. "I wonder what would've happened if things played out differently. If I just broke something within me, would that let me see you?" He turned the phone screen to his face.

'You're already looking at me.'

"Not my mind, I suppose." He put the phone face down between his legs. "That would ruin everything. Maybe if I went and I died, I'd see you."

'Please don't.'

"No, no. I'd hate to see Cobs break again after all I've done. The rest? I think I'd love it though." The tapping on his thighs ceased and his hands fell to his side. "Seeing them suffer or maybe laugh at me."

4 looked up. "Both even. I wouldn't know. But I'd like to see it. When they see my body, my corpse, laying on the floor while crocodile tears fall from their faces. Except for Cobs: who's actually crying.

"And when he realizes I can't be brought back, he'll sob and he'll sob about it but move on with his life because there's nothing he can do! And the others won't care not 5 minutes after my body is gone. Hell, after they find my body.

"Then, I'll join you in the Heat Haze and we can be happy. Together. Forever. Until the rest join us in our short, inexcusable lives. And I'll berate then, yell at them, and find myself at the same position I am now. Only with you. And it'll be better. Because you're there."

'No, it won't.'

"It will be." 4 grabbed his phone. He stood back up and slipped the phone in his pocket.

He pulled on his dress shoes and was before the door. He blinked and tilted his head. He sworn he had heard something on the other side. He shrugged and opened the door. He walked out.

4 smiled. "I'm sure of it."


	15. Room

4 was told not to worry about the project.

That really didn't stop him though.

Those presences practically strangled him with each passing day if he didn't check that room. He felt tired, curious, and anxious everytime he did.

The room where they all woke up from. Where it seemed like da- Cobs was playing God with this. The room full of what seemed to be abandon until recently. Everyone was here at some point.

4's shoes clicked against the floor once more. He found it odd that some door are regular doors and some were sliding doors. Quite handy in an apocalypse. The door slid closed behind him and 4 looked around the room.

To the right of him were just some tools that were left over. A few hanks of hair were also leftover, caring many colors: black, rose gold, white, etc. There was also a dye kit next to them as well. All these things set up on a table.

What was to his left was not as colorful as to his right. A tale was pushed up against a corner, littered with papers, blueprints, pencils, and a staggering amount of glasses.  There were also two sets of armatures on what was like a bed, with a screen connected overtop.

One armature was nearly complete, only to be in a state of sleeping for a unknown amount of time. It was taller than average, very pale, with messy rose gold hair and a red cowlick in the shape of a 7. It seemed content as it slept.

The second armature wasn't as finished as the first one. It was slumped up against the bed. There was no skin or meat on the thing and the face wasn't even half done. The hair seemed to already be in place, based with black and dyed with red, but everything else was exposed.

4 walked over to the unfinished armature and bent down to get a better look at it. The hair wasn't as messy as the first but still needed a trim and brush. The eyes were covered by a set of sunglasses but if you looled passed that you could see washed out red eyes.

This was him alright.

4 knew all of this already but was still a bit in disbelief. 4S was almost done. They just needed some flesh, organs, a bit of coding, and blood to get the man up and going. 4 just had some doubts. What if it doesn't work out all that well? Granted, 5 through 6+ worked out well, but they're newer models.

4 stood back up and sighed. He turned to the first armature. Don't get him wrong, but 4 never really met or liked any of his other family until he moved back in, minus the liking. He felt kind useless against them.

7 not as much. From what he could gather, an alternate timeline was created once and there existed 7 and 7+. He found both of them more like one offs. Same with 5S, 5C, and the rest. 5, on the other hand, was someone he met once and hates forever.

4 blinked and crossed his arms. He was a bit hyped for 7 but overjoyed for 4S. He smiled and closed his eyes.

"When you come back," he whispered, "it'll be so much fun, if this time allows for it to happen. If not, it'll still be fun, for me at least."

The presences weakened and 4 walked off.

 


	16. Uncover

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First chapter of 2019! Yay!

_"Are you sure you want to know about this?"_

_"There_ _isn't_ _any real reason_ _I_ _shouldn't. Besides, it wouldn't hurt to see a few things."_

_"Well, alrighty then."_

MePad glanced at his battery power. 32%. Keep going. He looked at the half finished hand at his desk through the glass. Gosh, wiring was so difficult. The needles and soldering iron with the wores shivered and shook.

Hands are a tedious process.

He needed a second set of hands. He soldering iron then over heated and in a moment of suprise, he dropped it. It melted through the floor and cloud and sky and whatever. MePad looked down and groaned. He got up, out of his room and to 4.

He rapped his knuckles against the door.

_"But that means he-"_

_"Used something_ _I_ _love against me? Yeah."_

4 was having a good dream. A nice dream. But then it warped again. The mind, it spiraled and spiraled into itself and he woke up to someone knocking.

He shook his head. Another one was trying to switch in. 4 got up and trudged to the door.

He opened it and found MePad at it.

_"If that is the case, and this is what you wanted, why_ _aren't_ _you mad?"_

_"It tells me he loves me."_

4 looked him over. From what he could see, MePad looked like a cat scratched his hair into a mop and decided to scratch everything else.

4 felt a presence try to switch but he kicked his leg back slightly. For a while, there was silence and staring. It was tense and the fact that MePad looked like he'd gone through a woodchipper didn't help either.

 _"He knew that_ _I_ _loved this stuff and sent that bot to help with that._ "

"So... new look?"

MePad sighed and stepped forward. "Could you make another soldering iron please? The one I had melted through the floor."

"Oh." 4 shifted his eyes. "Sure!"

He though and his hair turned green. In his hand now was a soldering iron.

"I _f he didn't, he'd probably send someone after me to get me back."_

_"And 4S?"_

Except it was on.

Though, rather than drop it, 4 held it and his hand felt like it was melding into itself. Not wanting to wake up anyone, MePad swiped the iron from 4's hand, threw it into his room, and ran to grab bandages.

4 lifted his hand to see his palm.

_"I saw his memories. It was a misunderstanding."_

"Amazing." The circuitry seemed to be fused with his flesh. Sparking in a manor that mesmerized him. It hurt, sure, but he was focused on how his hand looked that he didn't mind.

The gap in the middle of it must've been a mouth. 4 had accidentally cut off part of his pinky, so it wasn't going to talk anytime soon.

He was compelled to touch the burning flesh and perceive how it feels to burn your hand.

_"Dad is, he's great."_

There was a loud crash and a minute of silence before MePad came back with bandages and Cobs.

"Does it hurt?"

4 shook his head. "No."

"Give me you hand."

His hand was bandaged.

"Don't do much with that hand. It'll heal."

_"I suppose so."_


	17. True Purity

__

"Wait. No."

"What is is?" MePad set the unfinished hand down on the table. Cobs racked at the blueprints and looked closer.

"No no. That's weird." Cobs paced.

"What?"

Cobs sighed. "There's something wrong with these blueprints; I just can't place it." He slammed the blueprints on the table.

MePad looked over Cobs's shoulder. He frowned. There seemed just something off about the blueprints. Kinda like Edward Hyde. No one could tell what seemed off about him.

He grabbed the unfinished sketch of 4S and compared it to the other paper. He tilted his head. The sketched were near similar if it weren't for a hairstyle change. MePad grit his teeth. The paper crumbled slightly in his hand and he slammed the paper down too.

Cobs set a hand down on MePad's shoulder. "Maybe we just got an imperfect x-ray. We can just redo it."

"Or..." MePad gazed at the papers. "Maybe something went wrong with 4 when you made him."

"MePad Mini!" Cobs raised his voice. "You shouldn't say something so insensitive about your brother."

MePad sighed. He grabbed the 4S sketch. "Maybe a different type of metal? Or wires? Maybe even coding?"

"I've used the wires for you guys. They are all different, but they're from the same place. The metal used will always be aluminum, so that's out. Coding is a possibility."

"What about the flesh?"

"What?"

MePad turned to Cobs. "The flesh. Since we have flesh, it must've come from somewhere."

Cobs blinked for a moment. "All the flesh I get to make you guys are from people who have died recently. By the time I get them, all the bones, eyes, and the brain are already taken out."

"What about those bodies' lives? They must've lived a good few years before dying."

Cobs thought for a bit and grabbed the notebook on the table. After flipping through a few pages, he sighed. "I thought I had some notes about them, but no. All I know that they died in a humane way."

MePad glanced at the notebook. He soon grabbed it. "Where did 4's come from?"

"Same place where I got everyone else's. It's been years; I couldn't possibly remember."

MePad put the notebook down and headed toward the door. "I need some air."

MePad walked out.

"So it's true." 4 whispered so MePad couldn't hear him. He walked far behind MePad. "I was right. Ha ha... We are impure beings of sin and misfortune."

He looked at his hands. "I was right. My hands and my mind and everything is impure along with everyone else."

4 stopped and looked up. There he was. The purest being in all of the world. The one that 4's hands dare not touch. The one that has been nearly soiled and dirtied by those around him. 

There was Toilet.

And goddamn MePad touched him.

Don't touch him with your filth. Don't make him impure of mind with your stupid ideas. Your voice and charisma. Don't make him worry that you are having issues with a project or your brothers and sisters. Don't-

Wait.

Issues with a project?

"It hasn't been going over well, what with the blueprints seeming off."

No no!

Now he's having technical difficulties  too? No. No no!

Stop it! Stop bringing such impure ideas to his mind! You're poisoning him! Shut up! Shut up!

"On the bright side, my family isn't as such a mess."

Toilet's face lit up. "Ah lucky! The only one that cares about me in my family is my sister!"

4's neck bent at a 90° angle. He is unhappy? Unhappy with a life unfit for such purity? What is this? He can't be unhappy! Pure things need protection. Protect what you can because it can't be pure again.

Don't ever dare to try or think or feel like laying a cell on him! You'll just ruin him, you failure of a boss! 

But, Toilet is smiling. He's smiling.

4 is confused. What is this warm feeling? Is that shock? Is it ecstasy? He felt himself being engulfed by a warmness you feel out in the sun and he found himself with a new form. A bright yellow person with no joints, seemingly floating as the neck was nonexistent. Is this happiness? 

_It is._

4 shook his head. No no. It's not natural to feel happy. The only time he ever felt happy was when he burned down the jail he was in back when the show was still up. Any other times was just mild excitement.

_Isn't it wonderful?_

4 loves this, whatever _this_ is. He wants this to be constant. In his mind body and soul.

_I know._

And yet that has to end when MePad layed a hand on Toilet's shoulder.

 _Fuck_.


	18. Bail

4 was in the county jail. With 5. He hates being with 5.

He looked at all the other inmates. They looked so familiar. So so familiar. Oh right. This is the second time he's been in jail.

The first time around was boring. The main guy just scolded him about lock a few people in a closet. So? They were all terrible anyway. They deserved it. The people looked scary and probably were.

He got bored and broke out with a skeleton key he made. He went to the files room, crammed a cloth into a bottle of liquor, set the cloth on fire, and threw it. 4 went back to the hotel after that.

These guys here? This cell and weak bars? Simply child's play. But he couldn't get out like normal. Not with 5 and his crummy ideas. So 4 sat, and looked.

One came up to him and asked, "What are you in for?"

He was cut off by 5 trying to answer but 4 grabbed 5's wrist and squeezed it. Hard. 4 looked back at the guy and said, "None of your beeswax you vandal whore."

"How did y-" 4 grabbed the guy by the neck but still held onto 5. The guy dropped to his knees.

"I know things," 4 whispered. "Things you could dream of knowing. So get your shitty ass paint smell out of my face before I make it permanently part of you." He let go of him and 5 and the guy backed away.

5 crossed his arms. "Jeez, you didn't have to be so rude."

"Quiet you."

The cell door opened. The sheriff pointed at 4 and 5. "You two; yer gettin' bailed out."

At the lobby, they were met with a very distraught Cobs. 

"My my, don't ever do that again. You gave me quite a scare."

4 and 5 nodded. 

They walked to the car and 4 got squished against 3GS and 5. 

Shit. Your happiness is being compromised by these two losers. You better do something.

_Though, you don't always need to be happy..._

Then again, were you in the first place? You have now lived for the past 6 years in apathy and the only joy you get is from your brother, food, and- 

Food, and-

And-

Those things you did to your family. The emotions they endured because of you. Even Dad's brief worry gave you a rise. It wasn't as strong as that child's happiness but it was there.

And where is your respect, as well? You wanted to have fun with the thing you love, even if it was trashy reality shows. Then you get cancelled and you're happy? You shouldn't be.

Now you have two brothers you've  come to dislike; one hates you and the other you hate. You're between the two and you had three things that made you remotely happy. 

_And one is gone because of 5._

_I could never for give him for that._

So don't.

_Alright._

"We're home, now get on the balloon." 3GS pushed the door open and headed towards the balloon. Once all four of them were at headquarters, 4 didn't even bother changing and just flopped into bed, switching into that odd seaweed green girl.

You could think a bit before killing a bunch of squirrels. 5 told you to stop.


	19. Celebrate

5S glanced at the paper and looked up to give directions.

"A bit higher than that!"

MePad and 5 held the ladders firmly while 3G and 3GS adjusted the banners. 5S frowned and kept telling the two to keep moving it.

"No, maybe a bit lower!"

"Can you just agree on how this thing should be... hung? Cobsdammit!" 3G was a bit annoyed.

Mecintosh burst into the room with a wrapped box with a bow. He look around the room and grimaced. "You guys still aren't done!?

There was a loud beeping coming from the kitchen and smoke pluming from a cake that was semi black and semi baked that 5C held. She coughed loudly and used her hand to fan away the smoke.

"I think I overbaked it." 5C threw the baked monstrosity on the counter and tried to scrape off the burned parts.

MePad coughed at smoked and turned to 4, who was occupied on lookout. "Where's Cobs?"

"Ah, well," 4 looked out the door and saw Cobs round the corner at the end of the hall. The scared snake switched in for a moment before 4 regained composure. "He's down the hall!"

6+ yelled, "Well stall him! 5C is still working on the cake and the banner isn't up yet! Go!"

With that, 4 ran out of the room and ran up to Cobs. "Da- uh, Cobs! Hi!"

"Uh, hi?" Cobs tilted his head. "What do you need?"

"Ah, well, um, uh," 4 thought quickly and all on his mind was age. 4 was 15 right now and no one any idea how old Cobs was. "How... old are you... ?"

4 plastered a smile on his face that was way too big for a question. Cobs was quiet for a bit and the distant sound of yelling was present, not grabbing his attention as much.

Cobs straightened up and pushed his glasses back. "Ah, well. I actually don't know. When, I suppose, your grandma made me, we didn't really keep track of age and..."

"Mhm." 4 nodded and half listened while lookin back every so often, waiting for a signal and tapping his thighs out of nervousness.

"But then Clearing showed up and I started to count." Now 4 was listening.

"When... was that?" 4 got curious. And thought. When did Cobs get those rings on his eyes? When he first woke up, Cobs had already had them.

"Mm, around 1800s? I was still more of child then so I had to rely on other people for the time, which was probably a bad idea." The door sounded at the end of the hall. Cobs walled past 4. "Great hot haze, what is going on there?"

"D'ah! But, but you didn't answer the question! How old are you?" 4 hadn't gotten the signal yet and he really didn't want to jeopardize his family relationship.

"Hm, oh yeah." Cobs turned around. "Well, if I had to guess, maybe a bit more than, tch tch tch, 4,500?"

"Eh.......?" For a moment, 4 switched to a confused form, a completely orange girl with a bobcut and a question mark ahoge. He shook his head. _He's older than I thought._

Looking back at the door, 4 saw the signal that everything was ready. Quickly, 4 turned Cobs around and pushed him towards the door. "Oh look! There's something wrong in the living room! Let's see!"

"Huh?"

"Surprise!"

-

Today was February 24.

Not a good day for this to happen today.

On the bright side, at least they didn't forget what today was. A very conflicting day.

Cobs couldn't really remember when he got Clearing, but it's fine. It's fine. He couldn't really remember when 4S left to fight 4, but it's fine. He couldn't really remember when he almost lost 3 sons in one day, but it's fine.

It's fine.

But this not fine for today.

It was his birthday, he should be fine. Fine. But not really.

"MePad," Cobs called him over.

MePad walked to him. "What is it?"

"Ah, well, it's about the project...."

Cobs went on to talk and tell what had happened. As he went on, MePad's face went to aloof, to worry, to fear, to scared.

"This is a horrible time to tell me this!" MePad yelled so loudly that everyone could hear. The silence was held for a moment.

"Tell him what?" 4 set his slice of cake down.

MePad gulped. Looking around for a second before answering, "Nothing, nothing. Just taking about... a show!"

"A show....?"

"Yes! A show! Cobs just accidentally spoiled an episode for me!"

4 blinked. The tension, awkwardness, and the presences were suffocating again. He felt his neck's urge to bend, then grabbed his plate. "Alright then."

His voice was oddly higher and he said something that MePad tried to hear but that was soon drowned out by the party.

Cobs sighed. "We'll be going on a trip to see if we can fix this. I'll try."

MePad nodded and shoved a fork full of cake in his mouth.

 


	20. Liars

4 hummed as he kicked his legs on his chair. The kettle whistled loudly and he took it off the stove. He poured the tea into a cup and smiled.

"You lied about him."

MePad shifted in his chair. He was across from 4, with the table and tea between them. He frowned and gripped the seat.

"I suppose so."

4 rapped his fingers on the table. The rhythmic tapping filled the room and stove was soon turned off. He grabbed his cup and gulped down the tea.

MePad's hands shook as his cup was near close to spilling for how nervous he was. That or so much blood was coarsing through him that his body couldn't contain itself. He swallowed.

"That is why Mr. Father and I will go on a bit of trip to see what we can do. We'll see what we can do with our two weeks and sort out the rest when we get there." He gently set his cup down. "I hope that this will be successful. Fourth time's the charm I suppose."

4 stood up and threw his cup into the sink, audibly cracking and shattering it. He sat back down and smiled. "Perfectly perfect."

MePad blinked. "Yes. Perfect. The skeleton could do some reworking to prevent another case like this again. I promise that this time, it will not malfunction."

"He."

"Yes, of course. He." MePad looked at 4. "It's only two weeks. We'll probably find something."

4 nodded and MePad left the room.

"I've tried that," 4 said to and empty room, "and it didn't even work."

 


	21. Drive

The fives rushed to eat. 5 crammed three pieces of bread into the toaster. 5C was on the stove, attempting and burning eggs. 5S hastily poured cups of juice.

5C jerked her hand back and grabbed two plates, dropping one and breaking it. The toaster went off and 5 dashed across the room, slowing down to worm his way around the broken plate. 5S got the utensils and almost tripped in doing so.

It was around this time that 3GS walked in, tired and confused at the scene before him. He poured himself a glass of milk and stared at the three.

"What are you guys rushing for?" he asked.

In unison, they all said, "We're going to play some laser tag with some friends and we have to be there by 10!"

"Isn't that across town?"

5C spoke up. "Yeah, and?"

"Isn't Dad on his trip and Mecintosh doing some mixer shit?"

5 cleaned up the plate and tossed it in the trash. "So?"

"So, don't you need someone who can drive you there?"

The fives were quiet for a moment before breaking off into groans and facepalms.

3GS sighed, "I need to go somewhere today anyway, so I could drive you guys."

5 ran up to him and 5's eyes gleamed. "Really?"

"Sure, but first, breakfast."

-

"Where are you going?"

3GS twisted the car wheel cover and gripped hard. "Uh, just some ability therapy and stuff. Mostly just to understand Petrifying Eyes."

"You don't turn us into stone," 5C said.

"Yeah, but sometimes I'll accidentally look at someone or in a mirror wrong and turn shit into stone. I can't talk to my snake like Dad or Mecintosh, so I have to go someone."

"On second thought," 5S joined in, "Why can Dad talk to his snake?"

"Uh, I dunno. I've heard Dad say something about promises and salamanders, or maybe that was the snake. It's hard to tell."

"Maybe it's like that song series Earpods has been talking about over in Japan and we'll get into a weird tragedy that involves our death and stuff," 5 suggested.

3GS chuckled, "You hang around 6+ too much." He parked the car and unlocked the doors. "We're here!"

The fives filed out and waved goodbye.

-

He slammed his head against the car horn and shut his eyes. Is this shame? It must be. You shouldn't be thinking about petrifying your brother. But you want to. You really want to.

3GS reluctantly left the car and took the balloon to headquarters. He might need to get the bandages again. His eyes getting really itchy and he had taken ability supressants to cope with accidental Medusa'ng.

He waltzed into his room. "Oi, 3G could you go get the bandages? 3G?" No answer. He opened one of his eyes and froze.

Irrational and fear filled his brain as the sick squelch and smell of flesh and blood was grasped in his brother's hands. 3GS watched as his brother in blue held their sister's arm and lick at the skin. Biting and ripping at it and devouring the rest.

3GS opened his other eye. The rest of 3G and 2G were dismembered all over the floor. Blood pooling around 4 and soaking his shirt. 4 spat out something, dropped the arm, and grabbed 2G by the collar.

3GS stumbled back into the living room. Unfortunately, the doors for their rooms were automatic and the door loudly shut close. 4 twisted around to face the door. 3GS made haste and broke off a chair leg, jamming into the keypad of the door and making a break for it.

4 staggered to the door, dropping 2G, and clawed at the door. The metal warped and bent under his hands. He pushed it aside and frowned. How could he have gotten caught? Everyone was out of the house at the moment but, him, he wrecked it! Absolutely wrecked it!

Get him. Go get him and shut his stupid little face and snap the life that was his. You are not going back or running away again. You need to do this or Pharaoh knows I'll do it myself.

4 ran after 3GS. Chasing and chasing and going so fast that when he turn, he slammed into the wall but kept going. He kept running.

3GS, on the other hand, was booking it as fast as he could. He turned sharply and ran into a closet, shut the door, backed up as far as he could, and hid in one of the shelves. Unfortunately for him, 4 found where he'd gone off to.

This door was also automatic, opening at 4's feet. His shadow loomed over the floor, seemingly not his and moving on its own but always sticking to his feet. The clicks of his heels on the floor were satisfying and sleek. He only stopped once or twice to look on the shelves to no avail.

4 stopped at the end of the closet, most covered with tarps. A faint rustling caught his eye and he wandered over to where he heard it. A few bangs and clangs were sounded as he got closer. His hands wavered over the tarp and his neck twitched to bend. Then he threw off the tarp and, lo and behold...

"I've found you!" 4 declared, grinning proud. "I finally found you, dear, and looks like I have won! Did you really think you had won? Nope!"

At this point, 3GS backed up against a corner, which proved counterintuitive as 4 only got closer and trapped him more. 3GS's eyes widened and tried to activate petrifying by staring into 4. Unluckily, his supressants were still in effect and had no effect on 4.

For 3GS, he had two options. Either talk this out or fight. But considering the fact that 4 must've taken down 2G and 3G out and also dismembering them, he took a wild guess. Talking it is then.

"Uh, hey!" 4 perked up. Good. "We can talk this out. You don't have to do this."

"Do... what?" 4 slowly spoke.

"Um, kill me? Again? I mean, we have each other. Our family, y'know? That's kinda all we have." 3GS answered.

"And?"

"Well, maybe you could go and revive our sisters and we can talk more in depth about it. So if we have some problems, we can take care of it."

4 stood before 3GS for a solid 10 seconds.

Talk? Talk!? Why would you suggest such stupidity? As the representation of violence, you don't just talk!

Then 4 started laughing. Then cackling, then turned it to maniacal. He grabbed his phone from his pocket and showed it to 3GS, the screen cracking under his grip.

"You see this?" He pointed to the phone. He crushed it in his hands, dropped it on the floor, and proceeded to stomp on it, effectively incapacitating it. "That was how much I cared about your shitty attempt at reconciliation."

4 pulled a knife out from behind him, pointing it at 3GS and walking slowly towards him. "You think that you can fix this? No way! You severed everything you had, dragging me down to see that you're a pathetic, good for nothing model that never should've had eyes because all you is impure and does not deserve the gift of life! The only way I'm talking this out with you is if some god is high and forces me to!"

4 twisted his body so that his left hand was closer to 3GS. 4's shoe was pushing against 3GS's chest, with the sternum being under pressure so 3GS couldn't run away. 4 grinned and dropped the knife, causing a bit of confusion to 3GS. But before he could think, 4's hands seized his neck and began strangling him.

He couldn't breathe. 3GS was slipping down onto the floor, where 4 decided to put more pressure onto the sternum and make it even harder to breathe. The hands still gripped his neck and the lack of oxygen and desperate attempts to get it caused 3GS to choke.

3GS's endeavors to get 4's hands off his neck (just 4 in general) were futile, as 4 was much stronger than he anticipated. He grabbed at 4's arms, flailing them because the oxygen deficiency was starting to get to him.

Then, one of 4's hand left the neck and grasped 3GS's hair, the other a little above the collarbone. Suddenly, in one quick pull, his head was pulled off and both parts stopped moving.

4 held the head by the hair in one hand and held the body the collar of the shirt it wore. He chuckled a little, proud of himself. You did it! You don't have to deal with him anymore! You can just live!

But, there's still 5. You still have to deal with him. Everyone else is just unimportant. Although, you could ruin them to ruin 5. Or you could ruin 5 continuously and ruin the others to ruin 5 even more! Yes, of course.

_That seems perfectly perfect._


	22. Go

He sat next to a lady. She was around his height, with a medium bob colored bright neon green with dark red stripes. She twirled a rather large lock in her hand while she looked at some papers. She had dark red eye, peachy skin; wore a long lab coat over a green shirt and the same dark red pants, fitted with some green shoes too.

He rapped his fingers against his thigh, making a familiar sound to him. Kicking his legs, he looked around. Off color white walls and pillars in a room he didn't really recognize. He shrugged it off and shifted his gaze. There wasn't really anyone else in the room besides the lady next to him. He tugged at his sleeves, still stained from what the man who picked him up called 'second trauma'. He didn't know what he meant by that.

Then, the doors opened and out walked the man. Fairly tall, with his hands in his gray jeans, strolling out in his black sneakers. His hair was split down the middle, one side being silvery, covering his right eye, with a lock sticking up and the other half being a plasticky black. He patted down his black long sleeve shirt and glanced at the two before him with his dark red eyes.. The lady and he looked up.

The man introduced himself. "Uh, hi. I'm Knife but people here call me Gen; Generations if you want to be really formal. So, uh gosh, where do I start?"

He stopped for a second before continuing. "Oh, right! You guys are probably wondering why you're here, so I'll get to that." Gen pointed to the lady. "Your name's Swap." Then he pointed at the guy next to her. "And yours is Rivalry."

Swap and Rivalry tilted their heads. "Ah, right. What I mean is that you guys are still... you, it just makes it easier to have people disassociate with different names." Swap looked side to side. Gen sighed. "Look, you guys are doubles and represent the people you are."

Rivalry shook his head. "Nope. Still not getting it."

"Okay, let's use me as an example. Like I said, my name's Gen and I'm Knife. But I also represent Knife in a sense. I represent his tolerance from the Best timeline to the Worst timeline."

Swap sat back in her chair and crossed her arms. "Timelines? I've created alternate timelines before but I've never heard of a Best or Worst one."

Gen groaned. "Explaining is a bit difficult. I guess I should've explained the timeline thing first. This is like my third time trying to explain this, so bear with me."

Gen sharply inhaled. "I'll grossly oversimplify, but basically, the alternate version of my great times 3 grandpa created a bunch of snakes using stillborn snakes and made a haze for them to live in. Blah blah blah, there're these three snakes when combined reset the world, something something promises. Those snakes already have a host or something and there's this other snake that the alternate version of me has that's only activates when he dies. Anyways, those three snakes have repeatedly activated over 400 times to make you guys because reasons. That's only the Worst timeline which happens when Steve Cobs and his mom both end up getting hit by a train and Season 2 of Inanimate Insanity gets canceled."

Rivalry and Swap blinked at how quickly Gen spoke and semi-processed the information. Gen fell back and layed down on the floor.

"So..." Rivalry spoke, "Am I still MePhone or am I, like, someone else?"

"I suppose we are them and represent them at the same time," Swap answered. "So I guess that means you're still MePhone and I'm still Test Tube, just not exactly."

"Mhm!" A blond girl in a shirt and shorts showed up. "That's one way to take it. I'm Libby by the way." She stuck her hand out at them. Swap reluctantly did so and Rivalry did vigorously. Libby glanced at the red on her hands but just rubbed it off with her shirt. "Sorry, about Gen over there. He's just a bit surprised at two doubles. It's usually just one at a time."

Libby looked over the two with her chocolate eyes and smiled. "Anyways, you must be Swap and you must be Rivalry." They hesitantly nodded. "Great! Swap, you double Test Tube and Rivalry, you double MePhone 4. You represent curiosity and violence respectively. I double Lightbulb and rep support." Libby turned around and skipped to the doors. "Gen, get up! We still need to introduced the new ones to Super!"

"Give me... a sec. I still... need a bit."

-

Super was rather short. He had short silver hair, but was a different silver than Gen's, and there were long locks on either side and one in the middle of his face reaching the ground. His eyes were the same silver as his hair. He had basic jeans, a dark gray jacket and sneakers.

"You smell like... aluminium." That was the first thing he said to Rivalry.

He hadn't noticed the smell radiating off him. Rivalry was so focused on the high of 3GS's, um, decapitation, that he didn't realized that the aluminum blood on him was starting to smell.

Swap sneered at Super. "Rude."

"Whatever." He didn't really know why he did so, but Rivalry then gripped one of Super by the hair and lifted him up. He was awfully light. They saw eye to eye and Rivalry just stared.

"You're so tiny. Your neck is too. It makes you so cute!" Then Rivalry let go of the hair and crushed Super into a hug. Rivalry grinned. "Oh, I wish my version of Nickel was this teeny!"

"Urk! L-let go! I can't b-breathe." Super looked at Swap. "Help."

Swap smiled slightly. "No, I'm good."

"F-fuck you..."

"That's rich coming from the rep of justice."

Gen came in and waved his arms at the three. "Alright, alright, enough hugging. You guys can go back to your timelines if you want. Here." He threw a strange device at each Swap and Rivalry. "You can use those to get back here any time. Time tends to stop there when you leave."

-

4 glanced at through the portal. It did look like time stopped when he left. That or it's been like 2 hours. No matter, he stepped through and the portal closed behind him. 4 looked down and still found the head on the ground right next to the decapitated body. The pool of blood from the neck was still fresh. He sighed and left the closet. He'd take care of 3GS later.

Strolling into his room, he grabbed some parts of 2G and 3G stuffing them into a garbage bag he materialized. He continued to fill more bags and when he was done, he took them out side and set them behind headquarters. It took a while, but he managed. 4 went back to the closet, got the head and body, and stopped at one of the free rooms. He inputted a code, opened the door, threw the head in, closed the door, and turned to take care of the body.

Only that someone had come home.

"4?" 5 took a step back. "4, good God, 4. What, what did you do?"

4 frowned. No, not again! Wrecked it! Wrecked it again! You always wreck everything! He gripped 3GS's collar. "Shh..."

4 glared at 5 and started stepping closer. "Tell no one. Just don't. You'll be fine if you don't. "

"Otherwise, you be like him. Just like him, only worse. Much worse." 5 was backed up against a wall. 4 towered over him.

He was in 5's face and the aluminium smell was sickening. "So don't let at word come out of your ugly, ugly mouth."

5's eyes were wide and he couldn't move. "Do we have a deal?"

5 whimpered, looking frantically, but not answering. "I said," 4 boomed, "Do we have a deal?"

5 yelped and nodded quickly. "Good!" 4 took a few steps back. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll go take care of this."

5 was left there in the hall, hypoventilating. The streak of red on the floor was now imprinted into his mind.

Good God, why didn't he just go with his siblings to the mall after laser tag?


	23. Makeup

His arms felt like glass.

Or more accurately, like stark white hardened clay. He didn't know why; it just happened out of nowhere. And not just his arms. His entire self seemed to made out of the 'white clay', save for what seemed to sound like water and mechanisms sloshing inside him.

What was more fear inducing was that his body was showing cracks and fractures all over him, starting at joints like neck and elbows but being absent at his ankles and wrists. The odd cape made of magenta screens outlined in red cascaded down his back, only drawing more attention to himself. His unfortunate self.

And his face, oh dear, his face. He had many fractures and cracks stemming from his neck and eyes and stopping midway through his cheeks. His eyes were seemingly brighter and a cat's eye pupil replace his lack thereof. Even his hair came down into dense yet soft clay strands, clinking when pulled from his scalp.

Toilet hated it.

-

"Toilet!" Her voice rang from behind the door. "Someone's here to see you!"

He snuggled further into the bed covers, pulling it over his head. He groaned. "Tell them to go away..."

"But he- Hey, stop!"

"Mm?" He poked his head out. Toilet's room was pitch black, with the lights off and curtains pulled, so he couldn't really catch what he was seeing. He could hear struggling and yelling.

A sudden sound of shattering porcelain caught his attention. Shying behind the foot of the bed board, he squinted. The door was then thrust open, hitting the wall loudly. A figure before him was hidden to Toilet by its shadow.

The figure didn't speak, just walked to the curtains and drew them apart quickly, driving the sunlight in and slightly blinding Toilet. The figure was now visible to him.

A person about 5'6 with black messy hair with a blue stripe. A simple blue dress shoes tucked into a pair of black dress pants. He turned around and he tugged at his black bowtie. He smiled, walked to the side of the bed, and bent down.

"Hi Toilet! You like the new you?"

"Mistah... Mistah Phone?" He hadn't spoken in awhile because he hated his voice at the moment.

MePhone grinned. "Yep! The one and only! But back to you. You didn't answer my question silly." He pulled out a pair of black gloves.

"O-oh, of course." Toilet threw the covers back and shook his head. "What about me-e?"

"Well, you've been cooped up here for a bit so I guessed you noticed that you're... Oh, how do I put this? Not entirely flesh anymore?"

He gulped. "Uh, y-yeah. My everything's all, um... Like-like, glass o-or clay, or-"

"Porcelain. You're made of porcelain," MePhone finished, tugging the gloves over his hands. "As tough and as hard as Jade, you're made of porcelain."

Toilet nodded. "Mm. I d-don't really kn-know why I am, so I've jus' been h-here." He gestured around his room.

"Ah, well." MePhone twisted around before grabbing a chair and sitting in it backwards. "That does more with your abilities as the host of the Snake of Fixing Eyes."

"Fixing eyes?"

"Fixing Eyes. Fixing Eyes is quite a... quite an abrasive snake once you meet them but they are yours. They allow you to fix most anything."

Toilet shifted around to sit and face MePhone. He tilted his head. "But that d-doesn't really explain the porcelain th-thing."

"I was getting to that. Fixing made a promise to other snakes to uh, avenge them and reset the world." MePhone frowned and started again. "That's for like somewhere else but like, Fixing Eyes then kinda fused with you and that turned you into porcelain because a few snakes died. That makes you a king or something like that."

MePhone sighed and reached into his shirt, pulling out a backpack. He looked at Toilet and shook the bag lightly, showing there was something inside. MePhone smiled at Toilet's confused look and tossed the bag to him.

Hesitantly, Toilet opened the bag and found-

"Makeup?" he asked, lifting up a compact mirror of some sorts.

MePhone grinned and stood up. "Yep! Since you weren't all out and about, I guessed that you weren't all jazzed about the whole being made of porcelain thing, y'know? So I went out and made some makeup to hide it. The backpack's also there if you want to hide your cape too."

"Um, th-thanks!" Toilet's smile made MePhone feel that feeling again. What was it? Joy?

 _ **Th**_ i _s i_ s **w** h _at_ y _o_ **u** _wa_ n _ **te**_ d ~~t **o**~~ _fe_ **el.**

Yes. Joy.

MePhone reciprocated, patting Toilet on the head, and leaving the room. "Bye," he said, stepping over the lady in the hall and out the house he went. He'd have to talk with Toilet again later. Pulling off his gloves, MePhone made the trek home.

Up from the balloon, into headquarters and to the kitchen, where he threw the gloves in the garbage disposal and destroyed them.

Stupid impure hands. You'll need thicker gloves next time.

-

It took a day for Toilet to try the makeup.

He had locked his room, turned on the lights, and went to work with the makeup. He didn't know a lick of cosmetics so he just slathered it on his arm and saw what worked. Just lacing it on was just enough.

Once it dried, it was powdery but it looked almost exactly like his old skin color. His eyes lit up but then his mood was dampened when he remembered the cape. No matter. Just stuff it in the backpack; there's a slit on bag to put it there.

Toilet looked in the mirror, unsure of himself. He still looked like him just more off than usual. He rapped his fingers against his other arm. Ca-clink, ca-clink.

Even with the makeup on, he still sounded in human. Hell, his voice. Almost like someone was speaking with him but you wouldn't hear at first. You'd notice after awhile and then realize, 'Hey, you don't have a British accent.'

It was then now that Toilet realized that he had scratched off some of the makeup and had revealed one of many fractures. He hated it.

He hated these arms. This flesh, if you could even call it that. He gripped his arm. He hated the appendages on himself that make clinking sounds on themselves and other things. He hated his face with the stupid blue snake eyes and crown upon his head that made him king. He hated-

Crack!

Toilet looked down at his arm. He had broke off part of it a little past his wrist. It was hollow inside, with the porcelain about an inch thick, bleeding out water. The rest layed slack against the chair, the water carrying it down.

Then he looked around. The mirror in front of him had cracked as well but not to the extent of his hand. More like someone took a hammer to it and hit it gently enough to not completely shatter it. The windows were the same too.

Toilet looked out the window. The neighbors' windows were also fractured, though it seemed less severe the further they were.

He gulped.

-

"What was that?"

4 perked up to look at 6+. "What was what?"

6+ downed a glass of milk and replied, "That big crackling sound. Kinda like a soundwave or like something just washed over us."

"Mm..." 4 tacked on a new set of gloves, thicker rubber this time, and swiveled a 180 in his chair before getting up. He shrugged and walked toward the living room. "Dunno what you're talking about."

"Oh." 6+ paused for a moment then spoke again. "Hey, do you know where 3GS and 3G and 2G are? I haven't seen them in a few days."

4 stopped in his tracks and his hands shook. He was just a foot into the living room and glanced to the right. He saw the door of the 5s' room but frowned.

He gulped and stopped shaking. He straightened up and rotated his head slightly. "They said that they wanted to go on a road trip with a few friends. So no, I haven't seen them."

4 left the room, closing the door behind him, and leaving 6+ alone in the kitchen. Now, 6+ isn't a professional, but it didn't take much to see that 4 was acting weird. Standing and putting a determined look on his face, 6+ headed to his room.

This just sparked an investigation.


	24. Jailtime

"Why is it that you poke and probe things?"

"I want to know how they work."

4 shifted on the table. "So what if you find something dangerous? Or horrifying?"

"I'd probably contain that within myself or show for all the world to see."

"That's a bit of an extreme."

"Rivalry, that's rich coming from you. You take everything to the extreme."

He shugged. "You gotta do what you gotta do to take care of them."

Swap chuckled. "How far are you in?"

"About... a week or so in. I'll probably run into Joe anytime soon after 5C."

"Of course."

Super stuck his head into the room. "Hey Swap, Gen wants you to come down to his office. Says there're some time disordering going on."

Swap dropped her tools onto the table and threw her hands up. "Fine, fine. Let's see what the problem is."

"I guess I'll take this as my leave and get back to my own." 4 hopped off the table and opened a portal. "Bye guys!"

-

Dagger was an alright guy.

Sure, he'd assulted several people and ended up with 3 years in jail but, other than that, he was fine. His cousin Army Knife was better. Army Knife was in because he was an accessory to kidnapping.

Joe was a cool guy just not be trusted as much. No one really knew what he was in for but it was probably something not too bad.

So when a kid of ambiguous age comes in with a jolly expression and odd body language, giggling and snickering to himself before Joe talked to him, the inmates were a bit suspicious.

Dagger couldn't hear what the kid was saying to Joe but he could tell it was probably something a little less on the sane side. Then again, everyone was in for something not on the sane side.

"Mr. Dagger Sharps." The kid got in front of him while he was thinking. "I'm amazed you're only less than 2% of the original while your cousin is little over 12%."

The kid giggled. "Why is it that?"

"What!?" Army Knife yelled. "Wh- What the hell's that supposed to mean? 12%? 2%? Original?"

The kid frowned, spun around, headed to Army Knife. "Mr. Army Knife Sharps. You are quite talkitive compared to who you were. I've never met him but my dad has and he said he was too nice for his own good. Ironic, no? Seeing as you tried to kidnap Mr. Orange."

He looked at the rest of the inmates, none really interesting him. One was a razor blade but he already looked solemn enough.

The kid turned on his heel and faced Joe. They stared at each other for a moment before the kid turned to face the bars.

He grasped at them before gasping, "Oh my, how rude! I didn't even introduce myself. I'm MePhone."

Then he tore the bars away from each other and walked out the cell.

"How do you even lock people in a closet with a portal in the first place?" Joe hit the pot on his head, a bang sounding the room.

-

4 kicked the guard unconscious and out of the prison. He tore open the cabinets and files and made lighter fluid to his hand. With a few quick swipes, the floor and papers were covered in it.

Lighting a match, 4 set out to set the rest of the place on fire.

-

His lungs burned from smoke as he staggered out of the walls. He couldn't breathe and his face in the ground didn't help all that much either. He crawled out and just layed there.

Then he was grabbed by his scalp and lifted into the air, dropping on his feet to the ground. He felt a wave of nausea wash over him and he belted forward into the person's arms, only to be pushed back forcefully to sit.

"Gah, Orange you glad you're not in the building?"

He groaned at the pun and rested his head on his knees, wrapping his arms around too. The throbbing in his head and the shortness of breath made it difficult to focus on his surroundings even if everything was ablaze.

He could hear the cheers of joy and rampaging steps of inmates while also the screams of terror from everyone inside. Sirens blared were deafening to him. The chest pain surged through him.

"Ah, that's my que to go!" The person exclaimed, snapping. "You'll be fine. OJ might kill me if he found you were dead."

The nausea and throbbing was worked through his spine to allow him to look up. A sillouette of a young man of an ambiguous age with a jolly expression and odd body language, dressed in blues and shades of black and white.

The person turned around and waved goodbye. He mouthed something but he couldn't he whatever the person said over the sirens and screaming. The the person left.

Orange didn't even have time to react when he fainted.

 


	25. Allow

4 stared back into the eyes of Starfruit. It was barely dawn, as the light had shone through the window. He had two bags filled with clothes and just had his foot out the door, when lo and behold, Starfruit walked by. In her pajamas and all, she held a mug filled with hot chocolate when 4 had caught her eyes.

She gulped. He blinked. Starfruit's hands became clammy and shifted her eyes. She just wanted a nice warm drink to start the day, not this awkward, tense staring contest! After 10 seconds or so, 4 got sick of staring. He cracked his neck, threw his spare keys onto the coffee table, and left.

-

Starfruit choked as his hand gripped her neck. For a kid so young, he was quite strong. 

It all happened so fast. She was just getting ready for bed when a window was smashed. She thought, 'Great, I need to pay for that.' So she went to go gat a broom and dustpan. That's when 4 was there, picking off shards of glass from his clothes and hair. 

-

"I trusted you with my child!" Cobs yelled. 

Starfruit sighed. To Starfruit, Cobs was a lot like his mom when it came to his children. They were quite protective of them. Unlike other versions Rivalry has met, this Cobs was a bit more intense than his mom.

What does that mean? Well, when someone has the intensity of 15 spotlights, this leads to the following, but not all: screaming, crying, irrationality, taking things to next level, a destroyed room, mood swings, and more. Cobs basically internalized it to do his job.

"Starfruit, you're fired."

-

"You..." She spoke gravely. 

"Yes?" 4 walked closer.

"You're... You're back! I thought you were-" Starfruit was cut off by 4 gripping her neck tightly. She was brought to her knees while 4 pulled out a knife.

"Miss Starfruit, I'd like to have a little chat with you."

"What kind o- hgok- things would you- hmk- wanna talk about?" Everytime he readjusted his grip, the less she could breathe.

"Oh, nothing, nothing. Nothing much." 4 poked the knife's point on her shoulder, smiling softly. "Say, weren't you in love with my grandma?"

She nervously scoffed and tried to pry the hand off her neck. "Pft, no. Hyk! Why, why would you even- hak! think that?"

Her windpipe was practically pressed up against itself as 4 stared into the eyes of a liar. "Oh really? I though my dad taught you not to lie to us."

4 slipped the knife into his shirt sleeve. "While one of my uncles has the same face, you go followed the one who was last with her before she entered the Heat Haze. You're not even that good at babysitting!"

He sighed, slipping the knife back into his hand and glaring at it. "My my my, you even let me slip away. Goodness lady, you're just asking to get fired. Now three generations of my family hate you, including me. I really wonder if you want to die for my grandma or because everyone hates you. Either way, she'll still hate you when you die."

"Sta- hyk!"

4 tightened the grip. "No no no, I'm not done. Even your doppelganger, he doesn't like you either. Granted, he's an egotistical jerkface who doesn't know what compassion is, even if it hit him in the face, but I digress. Not my dad, not my grandma, not your doppelganger, not even me, the one you let run, likes you in any way shape or form."

4 lined the knife blade up to Starfruit's neck, who was understandably trying to squirm away.

4 sighed in strained anticipation and smiled. "I don't know what's more enjoyable: the fact that you let this happen or the fact that you're allowing me to this."

"4 wai-"

In swift motion, 4 grabbed Starfruit by the hair and pulled up. As the blood form her neck sprinkled on to him, the taste of sweet and disolvant fruit reached his mouth. The head he led in one hand still had the spine attached to it. Odd.

The body of his newest victim slumped over his legs. He sharply kicked it away. While his preferences were that of neck mutilation and face mutilation... okay maybe just face mutilation in general, Starfruit didn't at all interest 4 in tourturing her. That's reserved for more personal enemies.

4 shook the head with both hands, letting spine gently sway in every direction possible. He sighed in content and threw the head behind him. The head made a squelch as it hit the ground and for stepped out of the broken window.

The wind blew softly this high up. 4 licked his lips. The fruity taste still there, he jumped for the next building, sliding down that one's ladder. He decided he would need to be a good distance away to get rid of his clothes. But, he'd need a good cover for the blood in the meantime. 

4 thought for a moment, then materialized a vest with coattails. He pulled it on and ran off to find a dumpster far enough.

-

"Oi, Starfruit. You're a bit of a monster, y'know?" That voice: she knows that voice. Starfruit bolted upright to find a lady donned in leaves and gold. A full dress, a familiar cowlick, and face her son inherited. Maize, the golden beauty of her life and a mother of six.

Starfruit stammered. "M-maize? W-w-where am I..?"

Maize held scorn in her voce and face that she had never felt before. "The Heat Haze you idiota. You died."

Starfruit looked around. "Orange, Dagger, 4S, Ringlet." Her gaze hovered over someone so familiar. "Swe-"

"Yes, yes. We're all dead. We get it." Maize crouched down to Starfruit's level. "Here's the thing..."

-

"There!" 4 shut the dumpster closed and and dusted off his hands. He had already licked off the rest of the blood and changed his clothes, although he really liked the coattails. Hm...

By the time he had gotten home, he was in the bathroom. 4 refitted himself with a new vest but felt that it was missing something. 

Then he snapped his fingers. Toilet wore a bowtie, maybe he could wear something like that. He materialized a bowtie and tied it on. It wasn't exactly his kind of bowtie so he took it off and tried again. This went on and on until he made one that was puffy and large.

He grinned widely. Not only does this look nice and fancy, the extra black from these clothes will hide the blood better! 4 chuckled lightly, changed into pajamas, and went to bed.

-

"No one wants to be with you." Maize harshly whispered. "So annoying and clingy."

She stood up. "Get out of my sight."


End file.
